February 20, 1886. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
397 
Cattleya Loddig-esii, &c.— In the collection 
of Sir A. Ramsay, Bart., Cheltenham, may now be seen 
a grand spike of Cattleya Loddigesii with eight blooms 
of great substance, a finer example than this is seldom 
seen. In the same collection there are also some good 
forms of Oncidium Forbesii in bloom, and a fine speci¬ 
men of Saccolabium guttatum, which has been thriving 
in the same house for twenty years. Among Cattleyas 
in bloom are such as Mendeli, Mossiae, Trianse, and 
Lselia purpurata, all of which are in grand condition. 
It seems remarkable that Saceolabiums should grow so 
well in so cool a temperature. 
-- 
FLORICULTURE. 
Seedling Raising. —The Pansy .—I remember an 
old florist saying to me some years ago that very many 
of his happiest hours had been spent among seedlings 
of the different kinds, chiefly Auriculas, Carnations, 
and Pansies, and I quite understood that it was so. 
If it be true that the thirst for pleasure, excitement, 
and novelty is inherent in man, where, I would enquire, 
may he so readily gratify this natural appetite as in the 
pursuit of floriculture, and, especially in raising seed¬ 
lings. There is nothing connected with this delightful 
occupationwhich fails to yield the most innocent delight, 
and surely there is always novelty enough to satisfy 
the most intense cravings. 
I remember that my old friend stated in regard to 
raising seedling Auriculas, he would advise no one to 
commence it unless he happened to be blessed with an ex¬ 
traordinary share of patience, as it very rarely happens 
that a first class variety is produced from seed, and 
even when so produced a long time must elapse before 
a sufficient quantity of plants is secured to make a 
stock of it unless it happens to be a very free grower. 
But with these drawbacks there is always very great 
pleasure in watching the gradual growth and blooming 
of seedling plants, even if their flowers are poor and 
disappointing. 
To all seedling raisers I would say be very careful 
about the quality of your seed. A pinch taken from 
first class flowers is worth more than whole liandfulls 
of inferior quality. Fertilisation is necessary as the 
most certain means of. gaining the object in view, but 
this should be done only with good flowers so that the 
result may be as satisfactory as possible. 
The seed should be so sown as that the plants may 
flower at the proper season. Take the Pansy for 
instance—a flower I would strongly recommend to 
young beginners. The seed should be sown about 
August, especially so if a small glass frame is available 
in which to house the plants during the winter, and 
give them that protection they require. Such plants 
can be planted out in beds in early spring, and they 
will flower early enough to show off their charms to the 
best advantage. If spring sowing is preferred, the 
latter end of March will be quite soon enough. The 
seed should be thinly sown in well-drained pots or pans, 
in a fresh, sweet, and somewhat sandy, but not over 
rich compost, and be covered very thinly. As soon as 
the plants are large enough to handle, let them be 
transferred to the open ground, and kept shaded for a 
time; or, better still, pricked off into shallow boxes 
2 ins. apart, and kept in a cold frame until they have 
formed nice balls of roots, then they can go into the 
open air. As the plants flower, any inferior ones can 
be pulled out, and other seedlings later in development 
put in their place. Anything thoroughly good should 
be marked, and propagated by means of cuttings, so as 
to secure a stock of it. For ordinary garden decoration 
Pansy seed can be sown at once, and again in August. 
This practice secures a good autumn and spring display, 
and throughout the summer also. In the autumn any 
fine and striking varieties can be increased by pulling 
the plants to pieces and planting out in a prepared 
bed. 
But how are we certain to obtain good seed? it 
may be asked. My advice is to obtain as soon as 
possible a dozen or so of good-named Pansies, and 
plant them out with a view of getting a few pods of 
seed to sow. Let the bed be dug deeply, adding some 
good decomposed manure, leaf-mould, and siftings from 
the potting-bench, mixing all well together, and as 
soon as it has settled down, planting out. Press the 
soil firmly about the roots, peg out securely the main 
oranches, add occasional top-dressings, and than a good 
head of bloom may be reasonably looked for. — E. '£>. 
LAYERING- TREES AND SHRUBS. 
Layering may be described as perhaps the most 
primitive mode of artificially increasing the stock of 
any shrub or tree, and was probably for long the only 
way known of perpetuating such desirable varieties as 
did not come true from seeds. It is simply the art of 
rooting a branch while it is yet attached to the parent 
stock., The introduction of other methods has greatly 
curtailed its use even in nurseries in recent years. 
Budding and grafting when suitable stocks can be 
found are preferred to the slower and more laborious 
practice of layering. Experience also has shown that 
many of the subjects formerly believed capable of being 
increased only by layering may now be propagated by 
cuttings freely enough for all purposes. These cir¬ 
cumstances, combined with a not very well authen¬ 
ticated but commonly entertained opinion that trees 
and shrubs, especially the former, propagated by layer¬ 
ing are shorter-lived than those obtained by any other 
method, have tended much to lessen the practice. 
Still there are a good many species and varieties of 
trees and shrubs that are and must continue to be 
propagated by layers till our knowledge and possession 
of suitable stocks to work them upon by either budding 
or grafting or in-arching is more extended, for they are 
not amenable to the more easy way of increase by 
cuttings. 
The season for layering is usually regulated in 
nurseries by convenience, and the most convenient 
time is either autumn or winter. The stools, as they 
are called, in other words the parent plants, must be 
cleared of the previous crop of layers, which may be 
planted out, and foi the time be done with before a 
fresh crop can well be provided for, and this is most 
conveniently done in autumn or winter. This system 
answers well even though it is theoretically somewhat 
opposed to the physiological principles on which success 
is believed to rest. The theory is, that complete suc¬ 
cess in layering depends on a check being given to the 
descending sap at a point on the branch that is brought 
in contact with the ground. Hence it follows that the 
check should be administered at a time when the 
descent of the sap is most abundant, which would 
probably in most cases be about midsummer. But ex¬ 
perience has taught us that this work may be done any 
time in autumn or winter, the earlier, however, the 
better, with unvarying success, and that it is never 
well to leave it over till spring, which is not only the 
worst time for the work, but is usually overburdened 
with other operations which can only be well performed 
at that season. But the chief reason for doing the 
work in autumn and winter is, as has already been 
observed, that the previous crop can be cleared away, 
which is a necessary preliminary to laying down 
another. This then should be done in autumn as early 
as it can be done with safety. Evergreens may be 
dealt with first, because they can be lifted and trans¬ 
planted as soon as the ultimate or last-formed leaves 
are full grown and the points of the shoots of the 
season are tolerably firm. Deciduous subjects, on the 
other hand, cannot be dealt with till there is a pretty 
close approach to the end of the autumn, but the fall 
of the last leaf should not be waited for, the wood must 
be firm ; but it will be an advantage rather than 
otherwise if there are a fair number of the leaves 
attached when the layers are transferred to their own 
bottoms in permanent quarters. The work of layering 
should then be set about forthwith as if time were 
precious, which it is assuredly. Now for the mode or 
modes, for they are several. 
But first let it be understood that where there is 
much call for the practice of layering on the part of a 
forester, there should be a well-ordered stool ground 
established, containing well-selected specimens of the 
various subjects to be operated upon. These should be 
planted at such distances apart as will ensure ample 
convenience for the necessary work, including barrow- 
work, and also for the spread of the branches without 
the risk of their being injured while in growth or dis¬ 
turbed after they are layered. If the requirements are 
small and there are parent plants of the kinds wanted 
in the woodlands or grounds, there will be no need for 
a stool ground of the kind indicated, as the layering 
may take place where the parent stands, if it is in a 
practically favourable position for the operation. 
The principal consideration in layering any plant is 
how best to check the descending sap at a point of the 
layer placed in contact with and covered with soil. 
Experience has shown that this object is best attained 
by making an incision on the under-side of the branch 
in an oblique direction upwards 1 in. cr more in length, 
according to the dimensions of the branch, and pene¬ 
trating to half the thickness of the same. This is the 
most common method, and when it can be practised is 
the best. But there are brittle and pithy subjects that 
will not submit to this treatment ; they snap asunder 
as soon as it is attempted to bring them in contact 
with the earth, and elevate the point of the shoot as 
much as is necessary towards the perpendicular. In 
such cases barking and scarifying the bark hard into 
the alburnum or young wood ; ringing the bark, that 
is, removing it all round or only on the under-side to 
the width of J in. or \ in. ; piercing, that is, forcing a 
small knife or an awl through the branch horizontally, 
and wiring or twisting a piece of wire round the branch 
at the point to be layered, and then scarifying the bark 
on the under-side, may be tried to overcome the diffi¬ 
culty. The point of the branch operated upon must 
then be brought in contact w-ith the earth, and held 
there with a peg or pegs according to the strength of 
the branch, but there should be no risk of its drawing 
the_ pegs and setting itself free after it is placed in 
position. If the check is effected by incision as first 
described, be careful in pegging the branch down to 
keep the tongue or heel formed on the under-side from 
returning to its position and closing with the upper 
half again, otherwise there may be a failure in the 
operation. When the pegging is satisfactorily done, 
the point of the layer may be brought as near perpen¬ 
dicular as possible, and the base covered with 3 ins. or 
4 ins. of sharp sandy soil. It is, perhaps, necessary to 
add that if the natural soil is heavy and wet, it should 
be rendered light and dry before the operation of 
layering is attempted, and that the soil in which the 
layers are placed should also be deeply stirred.— Forestry. 
-- 
We regret to record the death, on Monday morning 
last, of Mr. David Doig, for twenty years gardener at 
Rossie Priory, near Dundee. Mr. Doig w-as seized with 
paralysis nearly twelve months ago, and had since June 
last been laid aside from active duty. He was born at 
Kirkinck in 1821, and served his apprenticeship in the 
gardens at Rossie Priory, under Mr. James Kidd, who 
had charge of that establishment for some fifty years. 
He subsequently became gardener at Keithock, Inch- 
marline, and Haftons, and on the retirement of Mr. 
Kidd, returned to Rossie Priory as head gardener, and 
during his tw-enty years of service with the late and 
present Lord Kinnaird, did full justice to his charge. 
1 he gardens and pleasure grounds at Rossie Priory are 
very extensive, the kitchen garden alone occupying 
some six acres, while the glass department is on an 
equally extensive scale. The pleasure grounds contain 
some of the handsomest Conifers in Scotland, many of 
them memorials of political victories in the county of 
Perth. Some ten years ago, when visiting Mr. Doig, we 
noticed also a considerable number of other choice trees 
and shrubs in the grounds, and which, owing to the 
gravelly sub-soil and comparatively dry climate, make 
a better grow-th than many w-ould suppose possible so 
far north. Fruit culture under glass w-as, we noticed, 
carried out to a considerable extent, and in the most 
admirable manner by Mr. Doig, who was warmly 
respected by his employers as well as by those w-ho 
served under him, as well for his abilities as a gardener 
as for his goodness of disposition. 
-- 
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. 
Pragnell's Exhibition Beet.— P. T. S . : Tou can obtain it 
true from Messrs. James Veitch & Sons, King's Road, Chelsea, 
S.W. 
Plant Collecting. — A Young Botanist: Your best plan would 
be to obtain employment for a time in one of the large plant 
importing establishments, such as those of Messrs. Sander & Co., 
St. Albans ; Messrs. Hugh Low & Co., Clapton; or Messrs. 
Veitch & Sons, Chelsea. A year or two in the Royal Gardens, 
Kew, would also be of advantage to you in enabling you to 
acquire some knowledge of the subject. Plant collecting is not 
all sunshine, and our advice to you is look into the matter well, 
and consider it in all its bearings before finally deciding. 
Shading. —I have just put up a small span-roofed hot-house 
for plants, 15 ft. by 10 ft., supplied by a Norwich firm. They 
recommended me not to have roller blinds as they are constantly 
out of order, but to whiten the glass during summer. The house 
is fully exposed to the sun all day. Which had I better do, have 
roller blinds, fixed blinds, or whitening? Is there much advantage 
from moveable blinds ? Iam away at business most of the day, 
and fixed shading would be most convenient for me.— Amateur .— 
[Under the circumstances “ Amateur ’’ would find it most con¬ 
venient to have permanent shading, and instead of using 
whitening mixed with milk, he should paint the glass outside 
with Elliott’s Summer Cloud, which answers admirably for 
breaking the rays of the sun, and looks better than the former.] 
Camellia Buds Dropping Off.— J. Cox. : The appearance of 
the leaves indicates poverty, and we suspect the roots are in a 
bad condition. You do not say if the plants are in pots or 
planted out, but in either case have the roots and compost 
examined, and the latter if sour and inert, replaced with a mix¬ 
ture of good peat and rich fibrous loam. Be careful to m a ke the 
drainage perfect, and while you have the plants in hand, prune 
them back moderately. If you have a warmer house than the 
greenhouse, put them into that to make their newgrowth, if not 
delay the operation for another month. It may be that the balls 
are dry in the centre—a fertile source of bud-dropping—and in 
